A45: Queen's pawn game

So far in playing this line as Black, I have seen some interesting answers from White in the handling of this opening. Some very aggressive, some very positional. How do you fare against this opening and what ideas have you found that work in the defense as Black.

Here is an example of one of those games in blitz chess. G/10.

I will annotate my ideas shortly on this.

My 2 cents. As usual, that's pretty long...

2.e3 (?) : I already disagree with this move that traps the bishop for nothing. However, I would have answered by 2...d5 where the queen's gambit declined position that occurs after 3.c4 (sooner or later) is much better for Black than the standard line, due to what I mentioned.

3.g4 ? is just insane.

5...c6 (?) : 5...h6 and White's only way to justify the previous moves is the ridiculous 6.f3 that speaks volumes against the value of 3.g4. Other moves lose a pawn, except 6.f4 that gives Black a wonderful outpost on e4.

7.Nc3 ? is of course a mistake.Better Nd2 for instance.

Why do you have to give p the pair of bishops at move 8 ? I can see how White can force a trade pair of B vs pair of B but that's nothing to fear.

8...e6 ? is inconsistant. Rather ...Bg7 followed by ...c5, etc. ...h6 is still good enough.

9...Bg4 ? : what center are you pressuring ? Pick your square : e4 that was under the control of your bishop before that move, or d4 that s solidly defended by two pawns, that you pretend to attack indirectly by pinning one of its defenders. This move is a loss of tempo at best. And the fact White answered by another loss of tempo does not make it good. Better 9...c5, to develop the knight to c6 (if 10.Ba3 Qa5).

11...Bxe5 ? : admitting one's mistake by ...Bf5 was better. You want to keep that bishop, your dark squares are weak. After that move White has a good edge.

About your comment on move 13 : the Bg2 is a bit passive, it's true, but the Bc1 will be a monster once he moves to a3 (jumping on d6, etc.). So you are the one with trouble here.

14...Qe7 : the pin could be capitalized on by 15.e4 ! because 15...dxe4 (other moves give White what he wanted, ie trading his bad pawn for a good one and making space for the bishop) 16.Qd4 b6 (forced) 15.Bxe4 and White can already trade the Ba3 against the knight to create doubled pawns, after what it's good bishop vs bad bishop, although Black has resources. So it might be better not to trade after that, but in any case White is slightly better.

19...Bf5 ! is not obvious to think of (loses time to refuse the trade, refuse a bad vs good bishop trade) but that's the good decision.

After 20.Bxc5 ? Black has no longer trouble.

21...Be4 ? : why ? After 22.Bxe4 dxe4 23.Qg2 Black will lose the e4 pawn, and more importantly there are two open files which mean White can take one. Instead, ...Rb8 followed by ...Kd7 and doubling on the b file (White cannot oppose indefinetely because of the attacked c2 pawn) gives Black a vastly superior game, if not winning. The same applies for the next move, where White and Black should both take the other's bishop.

24...Qc5 ? loses a precious tempo. Instead, ...Rb8, ...Kd7/e7 etc.

26.h5 ? is a bad plan. Instead, White can give Black serious problems with Rb7 followed by Rfb1. White loses the a pawn after ...Qa3, but has some counterplay, unlike in the game, where White probably resigned too early but had nothing for his soon-fallen a pawn.

Those are good points to cover there.

My experience with the A45 is very limited. In fact, the only reason i think my DB refers to this as A45 is that its ability to assess positions by transposition is very limited. I would almost classify this as a D10 line by transposition.

Perhaps in future games, I will look to steer these games into a QGD or Grunfeld proper, taking care not to enter into a weird Trompowsky whether or not White plays 2. Bg5.

Still the ideas you present seem to be a more solid reply than attempting to reinvent the wheel here.

Great posting irontiger.

Thanks pfren.

Having just started into  moving 1... Nf6 against d4, I really am doing a learn as you go approach to this as the city i live in has very few chess books to look at and gain some ideas with new openings.

Also, I have no personal computer of my own and as a result, have none of my own DBs, tablebases, engines or the like. Literally, I pretty much am flying by the seat of my pants in a lot of different openings and figuring things out as I go. Hopefully soon this will change but for now this is the best I can do. Tpyically, I try to steer away from QP games unless my opponent plays 1. d4, opting for more 1. e4 openings. A look at my stats overall for the last 18 months or so will confirm this as I played many games opening either 1.d4, 1. Nf3 or 1. c4, going to more 1. e4 games instead. This also applies to the OTB games I play as well.

Perhaps someday I may play this for more than fun but TBH, I have very little time to devote to chess other than for recreation. Perhaps you could post some links to some of the games featured with this opening lines?